William Ramsay

Born in Glasgow on October 2, 1852, William Ramsay became one of the leading chemists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He spent much of his career at University College London and is remembered above all for his role in discovering several inert gases, including argon, helium, neon, krypton, and xenon.

Those discoveries helped show that a whole new group of elements belonged in the periodic system. In recognition of that work, he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904. Ramsay died on July 23, 1916, leaving behind a scientific legacy that reshaped modern chemistry.

Readers interested in the history of science often find his story especially appealing because it combines careful laboratory work with the thrill of finding something entirely unexpected in ordinary air.